Forgotten Places, Forgotten People
How a NIAS Fellowship Helped Reframe the History of Dutch Slavery
What emerged during his fellowship was Forgotten Places, Forgotten People, a book that expands both the geography and the timeline of Dutch involvement in slavery – and is already in its second printing.
The book opens with a scene from one of NIAS’s weekly seminars. During his Fonds BJP Fellowship, offered by NIAS in cooperation with the Fonds Bijzondere Journalistieke Projecten, Leendert van der Valk asked a room full of fellows from around the world a seemingly straightforward question: How many people have ever lived in slavery under Dutch rule? They were allowed to Google it. As participants searched for answers online, they quickly discovered that the familiar figure of 600,000 referred only to the transatlantic slave trade – and left vast parts of the Dutch slavery story untold.
Exceptional time and space
For Van der Valk, the fellowship provided something increasingly rare for a freelance writer: time and space to think. “The fellowship was incredibly important,” he says. “It gave me the peace and quiet I needed to bring this project to a successful conclusion. As a freelancer, that is exceptional.”
That freedom proved crucial for a project that sought to move beyond familiar narratives. Dutch slavery is often associated primarily with the transatlantic trade and the estimated 600,000 Africans transported on Dutch ships. But as Van der Valk discovered, that figure captures only part of the story.
Tracing connections
Drawing on recent historical research, archival sources and demographic studies, he argues that Dutch involvement in slavery was both geographically broader and historically longer-lasting than is commonly understood. His book traces connections stretching from Guyana and Tobago to Angola, Madagascar, India, Taiwan and the Indonesian archipelago. It also highlights groups that have often remained invisible in public memory, including Indigenous enslaved people and children.
“The history lasted much longer and involved many more people than we tend to think,” he says. “There are entire regions, communities and periods that remain outside the picture.”
NIAS alum Leendert van der ValkThere were fellows whose contributions were very important for the development of the book.
The interdisciplinary environment at NIAS played a significant role in shaping the book. Van der Valk worked alongside fellows from a wide range of academic fields, whose perspectives helped him rethink both the structure and scope of the project.
“There were fellows whose contributions were very important for the development of the book,” he recalls. “Ideas from all those different disciplines found their way into it. That’s why it became an interdisciplinary book, combining historical insights and academic sources with my usual journalistic approach.”
A visible mark
One suggestion in particular left a visible mark on the final publication. During a seminar discussion, a fellow proposed including Indigenous place names alongside colonial ones. “You can now see that reflected throughout the book,” Van der Valk says.
The fellowship also offered an ideal setting for a project that examines the politics of maps themselves. Rather than simply presenting locations, Forgotten Places, Forgotten People explores the atlas as a colonial instrument – an idea that became one of the book’s central themes.
“It was an ambitious project,” Van der Valk says. “I wanted to play with the idea of the atlas as a colonial product. NIAS was above all a place where I could work on that in peace.”
The book’s findings challenge persistent assumptions about Dutch colonial history. In a thought-provoking interview with NRC, Van der Valk highlights how Dutch involvement in slavery was far more extensive – in both time and geography – than is commonly assumed.
Lasting memories
Despite the scale and complexity of the subject, Van der Valk believes there is still much left to uncover. In NRC: “There is so much we still do not know, or have not fully mapped,” he says. “Some things have simply fallen out of view. Others we may have preferred to forget.”
For him, one of the lasting memories of the fellowship is not only the work itself, but the community that surrounded it. “I experienced the group of fellows – and all the exchange that came with it – as enormously positive,” he says.
That exchange helped transform a bold idea into a book that is already reaching a wide audience. More importantly, it helped bring forgotten places and forgotten people back into view.
